Beervana 2011

[JoKing]

It was with great regret that I couldn't make it to Beervana... or the Beer Awards for that matter. In my real life, I maintain a high responsibility position and had some very high priority (for my customers) meetings and duties. Bad timing really - I had a massive import, several customer meetings, now today - a massive export.

 

Such is life.

 

Anyhow... it seems from where I'm sitting that this year has been quite easily the best Beervana year to date. I have been following with great interest the twitter streams... and facebook updates too.

 

While I'm at it - congrats to Soren for taking out champion brewery of 2011 - what a dream right? So so so so much the best result anyone could ever ask for aye: a cutting adge craft brewery taking honours over all the big boys. Awesome stuff!

 

Anyhow... feel free to comment on what you liked best at beervana or whatever you like... Don;t rub it in too hard that I don't get to be there though.

 

Cheers!

 

Joe.

[Dan Filihiahekava]

God i feel good this morning !!

I had a blast last night and i cant get over how fast 4 hours went (for me it was a perfect length of time for a session)

Caught up with some cool people and a ton of new , It was like speed dating i cant get over how many peeps i managed to talk too , the aussie and UK boys / girls were hilarious.

Anyway my plan of attack was to try beers i had never tasted , Australian and re visit a couple of favorites , real ales and the must Festive Brews.

As I inhaled my breakfast this morning i had a quick flick through my beervana guide and i was suprised how many i managed to try.

 

For me last night my favorites were

Real Ales Cassels & Sons Milk Stout

Festive Brew Emersons Black Ops  &  Tuatara XI (i want and need more)

Australia - Feral Brewing Funky Junkie reminded me of my apple sherbet days as a kid running around the Hutt in bare feet

Feral Brewing Boris  one of my favorite beers for the night outstanding i ended up having 3 of these during the night.

Harringtons Anvil -also had a great yarn with YT

Sprig & Fern Dales Belgian my first ever real beer was a belgian and this beer reminded me of what got me on the right side of the fence.

Liberty Brewing  C!tra IIPA  smashed the taste buds to bits which kept me going back for more.

and last but not least ParrotDog BitterBitch i can see myself drinking alot of this beer well done.

 

Back to Beervana tonight if i get the chance will be keen to try a couple that i didn't have time for .

 

 

 

[jt]

Reckon you might need some counseling to get over it Joe ? Or maybe a few good beers tonight might help numb the pain.

[JoKing]

Mate... unfortunately I run a zero tolerance to alcohol at work policy - and I can't see myself leaving here before 2am. When I get home, I'll be ready for bed!

 

I'll be back down in Wellington on the 19th of August releasing our M!llers IIPA beer. This will be my beervana.

[jt]

Well works a different story as sadly a love of beer doesn't always pay the bills.
But hey, Beervana isn't compulsory (might be bloody great though)
FWIW I'm not going either, by choice, other good things to do

Cheers

[jt]

Spotted at the station end of the Caketin walkway between 2 & 3, a man in bright pants, wife & 3 boys. Well spotted by Mrs T
And the giveaway wasn't the pants, it was the 3 boys

[Chris Banks]

I went along yesterday 12-4 tried a lot of good beers Favourite beers were Parrot Dog - Bitter bitch , Liberty - Citra and Hallertau - Winter Minimus all good and hoppy!!

Seemed a lot of the more interesting beers had sold out rather early on which was gutting but my faith was restored when a keg of  Winter Minimus appeared!

Seemed the food selection was a lot better this year which was cool.

I wondered how the brewers found the new concept as to me it didnt seem as easy as it has been in the past for them to be associated with their beer unless you had a bit of an idea of who was who??

Cheers

Chris

 

[Paul Wicksteed - another1]

Got to agree with Chris on all his comments, parrotdog was great, and meeting the guys, and talking to Ron about their brew day was awesome.

[Bambule]

To be upfront- I love Beervarna.  This year was no exception.  I can understand the consternation felt in regards to the new format.  Quite simply the town hall is a much more salubrious venue then the caketin, aside from the fact it left me with a very fuss free hike to catch my train back to the 'rapa.  But, I thought, we're here to drink beer aren't we and in that capacity the caketin didn't let anyone down.  As for the situation with volunteers instead of brewers serving the beer, it's probably more for the brewers to comment on that one.  As part of the volunteer brigade, I saw a posse of motivated, passionate people giving up their spare time to serve good beer to punters in order for them to gain enlightenment.  I saw plenty of brewers both in the crowd and behind the bars as well. 

 

I had the pleasure of working the central bar on Friday afternoon.  Liberty Citra was the biggest attraction followed closely by Mikes Whiskey Porter.

 

As a punter I got to try most of the beer I was hoping too with many highlights. It was great to see some Australian beers with a bit of substance as well, being let down in the past.  The Feral funky junkie was fantastic, aside from the name giving me some bad flash backs to a cheesy Peter Andre "hit" .  Murrays Spartacus was also a smack in the head with a hoppy piece of 4x2.

 

My favourites

Emersons Black Ops!  Liberty Citra, 8 Wired Festivius, Cassells Milk stout, parrotdogs hoppy pale ale  I even managed a Rex attitude, and really enjoyed it.

 

The food was great too.

 

And massive respect to Soren @ 8 wired, a most deserving champion.  And a home brewer!

 

 

[Richard Jack]

What a kickass weekend...

First of all mad props to the organisers and David, thanks guys for putting on a great event.

More mad props to Soren, congrats and well deserved, and also congrats to the other winners.

Favoutite brews are hard to pick because it's a huge list, but I loved the Emmersons Black Op, 8 Wired Festivus & Saison Sauvin, the Parotdog Bitterbitch (just had another at Hashigo and it rocks today as well), the Feral Boris (bloody hell that's an amazing beer to try for $2), the Karma Citra, Nota Bene side by side with Porter Noir (party in the mouth), YB PKB weemix on handpump, the Cassels Milk stout, C!tra... I could keep going but I'll leave it there.

Finally, I thought it was hilarious (and awesome) that at the end of takedown on Saturday night it wasn't possible to even give away the piles of Monteith's and Boundary Rd.

[JoKing]

Classic! That is just awesome! You wouldn't get that the liquorland festival in Auckland... I remember one year when the beer run out I was working in the Croucher Brewing tent. We'd just poured the last glass out of Pauls last keg, and the glass was half yeast. I told the guy - sorry mate... I can't serve you that. And he wasn't having a part of it! He said "does it still have alcohol in it?". He then grabbed it - and nailed it!

[Martin Bridges]

Beyond awesome. I was apprehensive about the move to the stadium but they did a great job of making it not feel like a soulless concrete box. Food selection was outstanding - I could have eaten those smoked venison burgers all day and the freshly-shucked oysters were divine.

 

Beer-wise, I didn't really have a bad one. My records show I got through 34 beers across 2 sessions without caning it. Hard to pick favourites but I was really impressed with the Feral beers on the Aussie stand. The 8Wired Barrel-aged Big Smoke was superb, as was the Mike's/Liberty TPA.

 

Also managed to try out the 2 new beer bars (Taphaus and Little Beer Quarter). The former has a superb beer range but is a little lacking in soul, but LBQ is a winner! Just a great atmosphere, brilliant staff and an excellent range of beers. They probably got most of my money over the weekend!

 

So a big thanks to David Cryer for taking this event to the next level, and to Steph for organizing an amazing band of volunteers. It was superb to meet so many great folks as well.

[RopenutS]

First Beervana for me. I gotta say.. I loved it! Man so many awesome beers, too little time.. haha nah 4hour was all good but I could have stayed for longer and tried as many as I could. A highlight for me was shaking Richard Emersons hand and telling him how good his beers are I also took a photo of him with my mate. Some of my favourites was the Tuatara XI, 8 wired festivius, karma citra.. nah i can't carry on just too many!. Wicked setup and all in there too I thought, well done. That Farra micro brewery kit they were using for the live brew demo was choice too. I want one haha. Just an awesome event